Main description:

The annual Congress of the Italian Biochemical and Molecular Biology Society (SIB) was held in September 1999 in Alghero, Sardegna, Italy. The programme envisaged a symposium on molecular adaptations of haemoglobin function in ver- tebrates. Haemoglobin specialists from several countries were invited to speak at the symposium and paved the way for wide-ranging and stimulating discussions. The symposium contributions have been collected together in this volume. The structure/function relationship in haemoglobins from vertebrates (fishes populat- ing temperate and polar environments, diving birds, marine and terrestrial mam- mals) has been tackled from many angles, focusing on the adaptation of the oxy- gen-transport system to the constraints dictated by the environment. Eleven arti- cles review some of the most recent developments of the studies on this ancient oxygen-transport protein, characterized by high conservation during evolution. The volume offers the reader an updated, state-of-the-art summary of a field that is enjoying a true renaissance.
Covering the topic from several viewpoints, the volume includes protein chemistry (amino acid sequence, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structures, thermodynamics of oxygen-binding features), molecular biology (globin gene structure, sequence, organization, expression and regulation) and evolution. In this representation of effective multidisciplinary and multina- tional collaborative efforts, reference is available to a wide range of disciplines and biological systems. The tools of the investigators comprise advanced and powerful methodologies developed in recent years, e. g.

Contents:

Molecular Aspects of Temperature Adaptation.- Adaptations for Oxygen Transport: Lessons from Fish Hemoglobins.- Recent Evolution of the Hemoglobinless Condition of the Antarctic Icefishes.- Oxygen-Transport System and Mode of Life in Antarctic Fish.- Functional Properties of the Cathodic Hemoglobin Component from Two Species of Anguilliformes.- Oxygen Transport in Diving Vertebrates.- Oxygen Transport and Diving Behaviour: The Haemoglobin from Dolphin Tursiops truncatus.- Molecular Modelling Analysis of the Haemoglobins of the Antarctic Bird Catharacta maccormicki: the Hypothesis of a Second Phosphate Binding Site.- Transport of Oxygen during Hibernation: the Hemoglobin of Dryomys nitedula.- The Hemoglobin Polymorphism in Sardinian Goats: Nucleotide Sequence and Frequency of ?A, ?D, ?D-Malta, and ?E Globin Genes.- The Organization of the 13-Globin Gene Cluster and the Nucleotide Sequence of the ?-Globin Gene of Cyprus Mouflon (Ovis gmelini ophion).